Instead of requiring a serial of arbitrary length/format, I think a WWN/EUI-64 is more useful/important, not to mention that the WWN/EUI-64 can pretty much always be used as the serial at the same time.
Unlike Linux, Windows consider the WWN/EUI-64 as the "serial": "C:\Windows\system32>sg_vpd -i PD1 Device Identification VPD page: Addressed logical unit: designator type: SCSI name string, code set: UTF-8 SCSI name string: 8086QEMU NVMe Ctrl 00012BDAC262CF831698 C:\Windows\system32>sg_vpd -p sn PD1 Unit serial number VPD page: Unit serial number: 0000_0000_0000_0000." (https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1576347/+attachment/4650553/+files/02.PNG) UEFI also makes use of the WWN/EUI-64 to generate boot entries for NVMe devices: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1576347/+attachment/4650554/+files/03.png https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1576347/+attachment/4650555/+files/04.png -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1529449 Title: serial is required for -device nvme Status in QEMU: New Bug description: I am not exactly sure if this is a bug, but I don't see why the option "serial" should be required for -device nvme like the option "drive". Truth is it seem to accept random string as its value anyway, if that's the case, couldn't qemu just generate one for it when it's not specified? To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1529449/+subscriptions